Hitting the road with Yoga Journal and Gaia was not something I foresaw myself doing in my career. I worked in television because I loved to tell stories and I wanted to have the chance to travel. So when I heard of this position and its focus on yoga, I knew I had to fight for it. My fellow ambassador Taylor O'Sullivan and I had no idea that our lives were about to change. When we got the job, we were stunned and overjoyed at the same time.

When it came time to pack, I thought I was ready. I've traveled my entire life, but I soon learned I wasn’t prepared mentally the way I imagined I’d be. When my mother and sister visited me in L.A., we came to the decision that I was going to sell everything I own. I even took all of my photos out of my picture frames and sold the frames. I thought it would be a relief to start fresh.

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Generally, transitions don’t make me uncomfortable. But I soon discovered that leaving home wasn’t the trouble for me, it was figuring out that I had an emotional attachment to the things I had acquired over the past several years. Yoga has taught me to find joy in people and moments, not material goods, which is why these feelings were unexpected. It was items like the throw pillows I bought when I was in college, the pictures of Spain that I framed myself, and the handmade clay pots I found in a thrift store years earlier that really got to me. My sweet family was there supporting me, but out of nowhere I would break down in tears. Here I was about to embark on the coolest experience of my life, and I was wailing like a baby.

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Still, the big whammy hadn’t even arrived yet. I was leaving my family, moving out of my house, selling everything I owned and on top of all that, I was as stressed as anyone would be. It wasn't until I walked out of my house for the last time that I realized I'd never be returning to my previous life again. At that moment, I had to force myself to turn my attention forward and no longer backward. It was the only way to accept that sometimes we have to let memories slip away.

So with only a few bags of clothes and a guitar to my name, I feel a lot better knowing that I've gone through a tough emotional transition in order to feel clear-minded and renewed.

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